Student-run speaker series: Romain Brette

On Wednesday May 31st at 16:00, the student-run speaker series "Spikes - bug or feature" will feature a lecture by Romain Brette, Institut de la Vision Paris.

His presentation, entitled "Why spikes?" will be held at the BCCN Lecture Hall, Philippstraße 13, Haus 6.

Abstract: On a fast timescale, neurons mostly interact by short, stereotypical electrical impulses or spikes. Why? A common answer is that spikes are useful for long-distance communication, to avoid alterations while traveling along axons. But as it turns out, spikes  are seen in many places outside neurons: in the heart, in muscles, in plants and even in protists. From these examples, it appears that action potentials mediate some form of coordinated action, a timed event. From this perspective, spikes should not be seen  simply as noisy implementations of underlying continuous signals (a sort of analog-to-digital conversion), but rather as events or actions. Dr. Brette will give a number of examples of functional spike-based interactions in living systems.

Here you can find information about the next appointments!